Design: The Man in the Trap

Designing is such a prestigious profession
these days that there seems to be more of it than there are things to
design. The result is overdesign, bringing more that is really less,
heralding improvements that do not improve. Recent examples:

∙BUMPERS. Once there were bumpers to guard the fenders; now the bumpers
seem far too delicate to be bumped. Some, in fact, have so many
knife-edges and knobs that they act more like can openers than bumpers.
As for the friendly push in time of stress, drivers have to be careful
that pusher and pushee match up bumper-wise. One solution...